Building on a previous posting a few weeks ago I thought it would be a good idea to explore the idea of “marketing friction”. With marketing budgets being cut at the first sign of trouble marketers lose economies of scale in their marketing effort. In other words they loose the ability to swing a big hammer in the market to get their message across. Historically, this type of marketing approach has lead to inefficient spending and low ROI for programs anyway, so cuts can sometimes be justified.
In the new environment with more emphasis on social media and increased scrutiny on ROI it’s more important than ever to ensure that your marketing execution is tighter than ever. The old adage that a “weak strategy well executed is better than a great strategy poorly executed” has merit. Marketing friction otherwise known as weak execution at key customer contact points is generally what derails a good marketing strategy and leads to low ROI.
I gave a presentation a few weeks ago to the York Technology Association and one of the key messages was that marketers need to spend more time aligning internal resources to support their brand building efforts. Reducing marketing friction helps make your marketing $$’s go a lot further because your execution is better.
Marketers can no longer afford to sit in their office and ‘manage by email’. They need to be focused on ensuring strong execution at every customer contact point by developing or having direct oversight to training programs, call scripts, messaging and program monitoring. Doing fewer but better/larger programs will have greater long term brand benefits than trying to do many small programs just to “look ” busy.
Focus on reducing your marketing friction points and your budget will stretch a lot further.
